It’s time to press your bib overalls, bring out the straw bales and tidy up the pig pens, Iowans. Utah Republican Jon Huntsman’s decision to skip the first-in-the-nation caucuses means it’s time to dust off all the clichés about the Hawkeye state.

As Washington Examiner writer Byron York put it: “With the 2012 Iowa caucuses just around the corner — a scant eight months away — it’s time for the quadrennial season of Iowa bashing.” (For the record, York did not join the bashing.)

For that, we turn to the editorial writers of the Bangor, Maine, Daily News. They groan about the outsized importance of the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary (but especially the caucuses). They helpfully warn about candidate pandering, saying, “voters in Iowa should be wary of photos of Mitt Romney dressed in farmer’s overalls, and voters in the rest of the country should be wary of voters who like Mitt Romney in overalls.”

Romney in overalls? Now that he’s sworn off neckties, that must be the logical next step in his fashion makeover. Unbelievable.

The editorial points to a New York Times piece on the same theme by David Leonhardt. He wrote that Iowa and New Hampshire “lack a single big city.” Therefore, he says, we don’t hear much in the first year of a presidential campaign about issues that concern metro areas, like quality of schools and deteriorating infrastructure.

Really? Good luck finding a state more fixated on school quality than Iowa. Ask around and see if anyone here is worried about deteriorating roads and bridges – Iowa has plenty of them. The last census continued a decades-long trend of migration to Iowa’s urban centers. Sixty percent of the population was urban in 2009, according to the State Data Center.

National writers make the same mistake every four years. They assume that Iowans have no knowledge or interests beyond their immediate demographic. Iowans are predominantly white and older than the national average, so we must not care about minority issues or the concerns of young families, right?

Never mind all those Iowa grandparents who spend their winters in Florida or Texas or who keep in touch with children and grandchildren in other states. Never mind that the state’s population growth as a whole since 2000 was about 4 percent, while the Hispanic population grew 88 percent.

Iowa is the top ethanol-producing state in the nation, so Republicans would never consider a candidate who opposes ethanol subsidies, right? Huntsman, the former U.S. ambassador to China, thinks so — that’s the reason he gave for skipping the caucuses. Never mind that former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who is relying heavily on Iowa, showcased his plan to roll back ethanol subsidies during his presidential declaration speech. That wasn’t an act of self-immolation.

During the last caucus cycle, the Greater Des Moines Partnership focused a marketing campaign around updating Americans’ perceptions of Iowa. Lauren Burt of the partnership said this year’s campaign, which emphasizes social media, also highlights Des Moines’ diversity.

“We’re not (just) a rural state. We have roots in agriculture that are very important to us and we have to pay homage to that, but we’re a thriving city,” Burt said.

Despite the quadrennial potshots from afar, the caucuses usually do a lot to improve Iowa’s image. Reporters and others who actually visit are pleasantly surprised to learn that there are fine restaurants in Des Moines, excellent art museums in towns like Mason City, and farmers with insightful opinions about foreign relations.

People who want to draw conclusions about Iowa may find it instructive to pay us a visit. They may find one cliché that actually holds up: Iowans are friendly, even to our critics.

Political columnist Kathie Obradovich can be reached at (515) 284-8126 or kobradov@dmreg.com.